Defense Policy

Boston's John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Co. last week put the finishing touches to an elaborate self-insurance program that may well become the model for other big firms in the U.S. The project: a company civil defense program aimed at sheltering and protecting its 6,000 home-office employees in case of a "major disaster."

In Hancock's 26-story building, the tallest in Boston, the first six floors and the basement have been designated the shelter area. After a warning of a possible nuclear attack over an interoffice alert system, all Hancock personnel and non-company tenants in the building would be directed to core shelters, which have already been tested by radiation experts. A zoo-cot hospital section and operating room have been marked off, and medical supplies are stockpiled close by (16 doctors and eight nurses are always available). Two existing company restaurants carry a daily food supply; to supplement that, Hancock has stockpiled 400 cases of Multi-Purpose Food (MPF), one can of which can feed a person for ten days. The company is also counting on 12,000 gal. of water in the building tanks, 25,000 gal. in the building pipes, and 1,250 cases of water in cans.

In addition to these arrangements, Hancock has provided for the safeguarding of its records (on the assumption that there would be policyholders, as well as beneficiaries, following an attack), has brought in an auxiliary power system, radiation-detection equipment, emergency battery-run telephones, a radio monitoring rig, and protective clothing.

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